Упразднённый школьный округ Уилмер-Хатчинс: История проблем и закрытия

School district in Texas

Wilmer–Hutchins Independent School District (WHISD) was a school district in southern Dallas County, Texas serving the cities of Wilmer and Hutchins, a portion of Dallas (the district was last headquartered at 3820 East Illinois Avenue in Dallas ), and a small portion of Lancaster. The district served urban, suburban, and rural areas. Some unincorporated areas with Ferris addresses were served by WHISD. It closed in 2006 and was absorbed by the Dallas Independent School District.

Throughout its existence, the district was historically recognized as one of the poorest performing school districts in Texas, in terms of both student test scores and managerial oversight. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) had, on several occasions, appointed monitors to oversee the district, with no long term success. This led to the decrease of the student body in the district. The district shrank by more than a third of its student size in the 2000s (decade), and, by the 2000s (decade), the district's boundaries had more charter school students than any other district in the state of Texas. In the 1970s, the State of Texas threatened to revoke the district's accreditation. Due to misuse of district funds and fraudulent elections in the 1980s the Texas Education Agency threatened to close the district. In the 1990s, for two years the TEA took over operations of WHISD. Around 1996, according to the district's accounts, 600 students in the WHISD attendance zone attended school in other school districts, such as Dallas ISD and Lancaster ISD, by using false addresses or addresses of relatives, since many of the families in the WHISD attendance zone did not make enough money to enroll their children in private school. Due to hastiness and lack of following procedure when firing employees, the district in 1996 had a legal budget of $366,583 ($ when adjusted for inflation), amounting to about $114 ($114.0 in 1996 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years when adjusted for inflation) per student. This is compared to the Plano Independent School District's legal spending of $161,598 ($ when adjusted for inflation), about $4 ($4.0 in 1996 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years when adjusted for inflation) per student, and the Dallas Independent School District's legal budget of about $900,000 ($ when adjusted for inflation), about $6 ($6.0 in 1996 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years when adjusted for inflation) per student. In 2004, the district closed Wilmer Hutchins Performing Arts High School, A. L. Morney Learning Center, and Hutchins Academic Elementary School. The board also voted to eliminate the district's police department and fire the police chief, Cedric Davis. Morgan Smith of the Texas Tribune said "When the state closed Wilmer Hutchins ISD six years ago, the district was like the region’s unwanted stepchild — few of the neighboring districts wanted to absorb students from its low performing schools."

After a series of investigative stories in The Dallas Morning News found evidence of cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in Wilmer Hutchins, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) began an investigation into the findings. That investigation found sufficient evidence of educator led cheating for TEA to retroactively declare the school district "academically unacceptable" (the lowest possible ranking). The retroactive ranking was the second consecutive "academically unacceptable" rating, which gave the TEA authority to close WHISD and transfer its students to another school district. After WHISD voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposal to increase the property tax rate (many citing the district's shoddy recordkeeping), the TEA elected not to attempt yet another monitoring effort, and instead ordered the district closed for the 2005–2006 school year. The Lancaster ISD was given first opportunity to absorb the district, but declined. The United States Department of Justice approved the closure on December 13, 2005. The district held its final meeting on June 30, 2006. Dallas ISD elected to close all of the Wilmer Hutchins schools and sent students to existing Dallas schools. The entire senior class of Wilmer Hutchins High School went on to South Oak Cliff High School. Other students were divided into several different schools. Marlon Brooks, the principal of Wilmer Hutchins High School as of 2011, said that some students had commutes of over one hour. Some students were over 12 mile (19 km) away from their zoned schools. The Dallas Observer, an alternative newsweekly, argues that DISD agreed to absorb the district because of the significant tax revenue to be gained from the recently completed US$70 million Union Pacific Dallas Intermodal Terminal, which is located partly in the city of Wilmer and partly in the city of Hutchins, but wholly within the WHISD district boundaries. After the closure of WHISD, property values in the district increased.

In January 2007, Dallas ISD removed 5,000 boxes with more than one half million personnel records and placed them in the DISD administration building. The district also removed the trophies, banners, and plaques from the WHISD campuses. As a result of the merger, Dallas ISD will hold the titles to the former WHISD campus facilities. For the 2008 bond proposal DISD plans to demolish the former Kennedy Curry Middle School campus and renovate the Wilmer Hutchins High School campus. In addition DISD planned to build a new elementary school campus within the former WHISD territory. In 2011 DISD re opened Kennedy Curry and Wilmer Hutchins High School and opened Wilmer Hutchins Elementary School in the Wilmer Hutchins area. The district had renovated Kennedy Curry and expanded it by almost Funds from the 2008 $1.35 billion bond were used to overhaul the schools.

In 2007, a community group lobbied for the re establishment of Wilmer Hutchins ISD. Some WHISD residents missed the small town country feel of WHISD schools and schools close to their houses. Some residents feel that the next preferable option is to have DISD open schools in the former WHISD territory.

In the district's final year of operation, it had around 3,000 students. About 80% were black and about 20% were Hispanic.